


goodnight, noises everywhere

by gotham_ruaidh



Series: Gotham Writes for Imagine Claire & Jamie [80]
Category: Outlander (TV), Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-18
Updated: 2017-11-18
Packaged: 2019-02-03 22:26:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12757395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gotham_ruaidh/pseuds/gotham_ruaidh
Summary: Claire, and Jamie, and their family, see and think about the same moon. Written in response to the lovely "Man in the Moon" conversation in 03x09.





	goodnight, noises everywhere

**Author's Note:**

> originally posted at [Imagine Claire & Jamie](https://imagineclaireandjamie.tumblr.com/post/167489052892/goodnight-noises-everywhere) on tumblr

“Now, let’s see…what do you want to read tonight?”

Four-year-old Brianna furrowed her wee red brows, clutching her stuffed rabbit tightly, settling deeper under the thick quilt.

“Goodnight Moon, Mama?”

Claire tilted her head, questioning. “But we just read that one last night, love. Surely you can pick another story out of all the books in this room? What about the ones you just got for your birthday?”

Yet Brianna shook her head, red curls still a bit damp from her bath. “George wants to hear it again.”

Claire’s heart lurched, just a bit. For this girl’s stubbornness echoed that of someone she once knew and cared for – deeply. But to think of him now…

She coughed, turned to Brianna’s nightstand, and retrieved the much-loved book. Cuddling right up next to her daughter, she opened the cover.

“Can you help me start?”

Bree moved George in the circle of her arm so that he could better see the pages. “In the great green room, there was a telephone…”

–

Jamie settled against the damp stone at the entrance to the cave, sipping the weak stew he’d been living on since finding three rabbits in his snares a few days before.

The weather had turned tonight. November often brought hints of winter’s chill, tempered with the warmer winds of October. But this night felt like proper winter – the cold seeping through his rags and into his bones, settling in the ice around his heart.

Had Claire made it safely back through the stones, and had she borne their bairn – the child would be nearly four now. He would never know, of course – and thanked God for it. For not knowing allowed him to dream.

On nights like these, the moon reminded him of his time spent at the abbey in France, while healing from the head wound that had nearly killed him. The dark, quiet hours in the cold, cold chapel, hours spent in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. A beacon of white – of hope – amid the shadows. A reminder that he was not quite alone.

The Man in the Moon. He minded his own father telling him stories when he was a lad – about the man who lived up there, with his wife and family, raising white sheep and white pigs and white cows.

Did Claire and the bairn see – and know – the same moon? Did they tell the same stories? Was it a full moon for them tonight, as it was for him?

“Lord, that they may be safe…” he breathed, sipping from the now-cold stew.

–

“It was amazing, to see that today.” Claire quietly sipped her mug of oolong, legs folded on the couch. Brianna crouched by the fire, adding a few more logs.

“The pictures looked so – so fantastic.” Roger crossed his legs in the overstuffed chair Frank had always loved, scratching thoughtfully at his beard. “I remember reading stories about such things, when I was a lad – never thought I’d live to actually *see* it.”

Brianna stood, set the grate back in front of the fire, and crossed the room to sit between them. “I just hope we get there before the Russians do. Then perhaps all this nonsense about a ‘space race’ would be over and done with.”  

“And live in a time of peace,” Claire breathed. “That’s what we all want, isn’t it?”

“I thought it was beautiful how the astronauts read from the Bible,” Roger continued. “How…how awed they were at the sight.”

Claire turned to face her daughter – and for a split second saw the naked love in Roger’s eyes, before he tore his gaze away from Brianna.

So she would not be alone. Praise be to God.

“Do you remember how many times we read Goodnight Moon, when you were small?”

No – I can’t cry – I won’t cry…

“Goodnight Moon? Is that a children’s book?”

“It is,” Brianna smiled at Roger. “A small rabbit wishes goodnight to all the things in his room. ‘Goodnight bears, goodnight chairs, goodnight kittens, and goodnight mittens…’”

–

It was a long while before Claire finally spoke again. “Of course the story was easy enough for her to follow, when she was so small. Just…a litany of goodnights. And it helped that she had many of those same items in her bedroom. Made the story a bit more real for her.”

Behind her – around her – Jamie sighed, snuffling into the side of her neck. *I’m here, with you,* his arms told her. *We are together now….we share one mind, one heart. I understand.*

“Do bairns in that time ken about the Man in the Moon?” he whispered, chin settling on her shoulder, watching the white light dance on the waves.

“Of course. We talk about him – but there aren’t many stories about him.” She turned to rub her nose against his. “Do you know any stories?”

“I do. A few, from my father, mostly. I’ll tell you, one day. We have the time now.”

In the dark she sought his lips – and he met them in a long kiss.

“We do,” she breathed against his mouth. “Thank God. We do.”

–

“What do ye mean ye dinna ken the stories of the Man in the Moon?” Jamie’s voice raised theatrically in the small room. “How have ye lived all this time wi’out hearing them?”

“We ken Goodnight Moon,” Jem offered. “Mam would read it to me and Mandy every night, at Lallybroch. But she never told us anything about the Man!” He looked across the room – red brows furrowed accusingly at his mother.

“I read the story to them, because Mama read it to me when I was small. It helped Mandy learn to read.” Brianna settled an arm around Claire’s shoulders, seated on the foot of Mandy’s bed. Safe and secure in the children’s new room in the new Big House.

“Can ye tell us the stories then, Grand-da?” Mandy suggested, her brown curls exploding against the pillow, clutching Esmerelda tight.

Jamie sat at the foot of Jem’s bed, one hand extended to Claire – who quickly crossed the small room to settle into his arms. Roger took Claire’s place beside Brianna at the foot of Mandy’s bed.

Jamie’s voice was calm, strong – but his fingers shook as they clutched Claire’s, so tight.

He cleared his throat.

“Weel, the Man isna up there alone, to start wi’. He has his wife, and his daughter, and grandbairns. And a whole stable full of horses and coos and a paddock full of sheep whose wool is as white as the newest snow…”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Memories of the Moon](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12845772) by [Phoenixflames12](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phoenixflames12/pseuds/Phoenixflames12)




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